BANKING ACADEMY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------- GRADUATE THESIS TOPIC: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR FINTECHS IN COOPERATION WITH BANKS: THE CASE OF FINSIFY TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED AND TIEN PHONG COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK Supervisor : TRẦN THỊ XUÂN ANH(PH.D) Student : NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM ĐAN Class : K19ATCD Course : 2016- 2020 Student code : 19A751005 Hanoi, June 2020 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that the thesis “ Opportunities and Challenges for Fintechs in Cooperation with Banks: The case of Finsify Technology Company Limited and Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank ” is entirely my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no materials previously published or written by another person. All sections of the paper that use quotes or describe an argument or concept developed by another author have been cited, including all secondary literature used, to show that this material has been adopted to support my thesis. I understand that the work submitted may be reproduced and/ or communicated for the purposes of detecting plagiarism. Author’s signature Nguyễn Thị Tâm Đan Approved by SUPERVISOR Trần Thị Xuân Anh(Ph.
i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to complete this graduate thesis, in addition to my own learning efforts, there is also the enthusiastic guidance of my supervisor and seniors at the internship company. I would like to give a special thanks to my supervisor, Ph. Tran Thi Xuan Anh, who gave me instructions on the method, how to complete the report as well as the topic orientation for the study. Although she has a lot of work, she does not hesitate to guide me, orient me to complete the research.
Once again I sincerely thank my supervisor, wish her always good health, happiness and success in life. I would like to thank all the members of Finsify Technology Company Limited for helping and guiding me during the internship time. Despite the increasing number of works, they still spent the time guiding me enthusiastically. I would like to send a heartfelt expression of thanks to the CEO and Product Manager of Finsify, who are always ready to answer my questions, give me advice and help wholeheartedly during the process of searching documents for a comprehensive view of Finsify and Instant.
Because of limited knowledge and lack of practical experience, the content of this thesis cannot avoid limitations, I hope to receive suggestions, further advice from teachers and all members of Finsify for further improvement. Once again I would like to express my deepest thanks to the supervisor, friends and seniors at Finsify company! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
iiii LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES. viii LIST OF APPENDICES .ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Objectives of the study.
Significance of the study. Subjects and Scope of the study. Definition of key terms .3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical and Conceptual framework.
Overview of Fintech. Overview of banking industry. Fintech- bank cooperation. Opportunities and challenges in Fintech- bank cooperation.
Locale of the study. Data gathering procedure. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Fintech- bank partnerships in Vietnam.
Brief introduction of Finsify Technology Company Limited. Brief introduction of Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank. Finsify- TPBank cooperation via Instant. Finsify ‘s opportunities and challenges in the cooperation with TPBank.
Evaluating Finsify- TPBank collaboration in Instant. Discussion of findings .45 CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Summary of findings. Orientations for effective partnership with banks for Finsify.
Recommendations to strengthen cooperation between banks and Fintechs in Vietnam. Error! Bookmark not defined. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FinTech Financial technology ATM Automated Teller Machine BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria CEO Chief executive officer DBS The Development Bank of Singapore Limited Fintechs Fintech enterprises Finsify Finsify Technology Company Limited HSBC The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation MAS Monetary Authority of Singapore OCBC Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation SBV State Bank of Vietnam SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises TPBank Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank US The United States of America UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland UOB United Overseas Bank Limited VietinBank Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Regulatory landscape of Singapore 17 Table 1.2: Summary of challenges for Fintech startups 24 Table 2.
List of interviewees 28 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page Figure 1. The sub areas of Fintech services 10 Figure 1. The five elements of Fintech ecosystem 11 Figure 1. Banking operations in Vietnam 14 Figure 1.
Bank- FinTech Collaboration Models 21 Figure 4. TPBank’ growth in revenue, profit after tax and capital 38 structure over the years 2017, 2018, 2019 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendices Page Appendix A: Interview guide 63 Appendix B: Lending process via Instant.vn 64 viii ABSTRACT FinTech start-ups are important drivers of innovation in the financial sector. Previously, FinTechs and banks considered each other as competitors. However, the focus has shifted towards collaboration, and the rate of collaboration between FinTechs and incumbents is increasing.
However, challenges on how to collaborate remain. This thesis is a qualitative case study of collaboration between Finsify Technology Company Limited and Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank and contributes to narrowing the research gap on the Fintech- bank partnerships in Vietnam. The thesis has generalized the general theories on cooperation between banks and Fintech enterprises and pointed out the achieved results in the opportunities and challenges in cooperation between Finsify and TPBank. The results showed that in the cooperation with TPBank, Finsify has benefits in lowering costs, gaining financial knowledge and experiences, improving labor quality as well as gaining a higher reputation.
In contrast, in the alliance, Finsify has to face challenges such as lack of trust, lack of experiences, bank’s slow decision-making process, different innovation mindset, how to make product breakthroughs, especially regulatory uncertainty for Fintech in Vietnam. In addition, the thesis also suggested orientations for effective partnerships with banks for Finsify and proposes solutions for policy managers to develop and promote the expansion of Fintechs' operations, creating a favorable environment for them to develop their business models. Key words: Fintech, bank, Fintech- bank cooperation, partnerships, opportunities, challenges. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale There is no doubt that the fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, is disrupting almost every industry worldwide. It is rapidly transforming the field of information technology along with the birth of internet, smartphones or cloud computing that have changed human behavior, narrowed down the gap in economic, cultural and social development levels. To the financial market, after the 2008 global financial crisis, this revolution has spawned a new generation of startups called Fintech- technology startups supply monetary- financial services. In banking field, most Fintech startups begin with payment services, but with their own strategies, step by step, these companies have entered other fields such as lending, raising capital, asset management which are originally the banks’ strengths.
As a result, the growing trend of digital banking services and the expanding of fintech entrepreneurs have become a menace to financial institutions, in this particular case there are the banks. Therefore, under the pressure of today’s development trend that customer behavior is dominated by technology, the gap between customers’ expectations and banks’ ability to provide services will get bigger unless traditional banks reshape their strategies themselves. In fact, banks are now tending to shift from competition to win- win cooperation with Fintech startups. In this collaboration, Fintech companies not only have a chance to exploit an enormous customer base but also the banks’ capital.
In exchange, banks can immediately apply the latest advanced technologies in a very low- cost and simple way. It can be said that combining with Fintechs is currently a trend but Fintechs and cooperation between Fintechs and banks have received limited attention in the research literature. Moreover, when searching for references, I realized that most of the research focused on exploiting the opportunities and risks that Fintechs bring to the banks, and studies rarely analyzed that on behalf of Fintech companies. Grasping the pivotal role of this problem, I decided to research into “ Opportunities and Challenges for Fintechs in Cooperation with Banks: The 1 case of Finsify Technology Company Limited and Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank”.
Objectives of the study + Systematizing, analyzing theoretical background on Fintech startups opportunities and challenges of cooperation with banks in Vietnam in general, and go further into the case of Finsify and TPBank. + Investigating the cooperation between Finsify and TPbank on Instant.vn through cooperation model, opportunities and problems in cooperation on Finsify's side. + Proposing solutions to improve the efficiency of cooperation between Fintech startups and banks in Vietnam. Along with the objectives, the study sought to answers of the following questions: + What are the opportunities and challenges for Fintech startups in cooperation with banks? + What are the opportunities and challenges for Finsify in cooperation with TPBank? + What are the recommendations to improve the efficiency of Fintech- banking collaboration in Vietnam in general, Finsify- TPBank partnership in particular? 1.
Significance of the study It can be said that Fintechs and Fintech- bank cooperation are current trends but they have received limited attention in the research literature, especially in Vietnam. Moreover, most of the researchers focused on exploiting the opportunities and risks that Fintechs bring to the banks, and studies rarely analyzed that on behalf of Fintech companies. Therefore, it is essential to find out the opportunities and challenges for Fintechs in cooperation with banks, especially the case of Finsify Technology company Limited and Tien Phong commercial joint Stock Bank. At the same time, Fintech leaders, Finsify leaders and SBV will be more aware of Fintech- 2 bank relationships and received recommendations to improve the efficiency of cooperation between Fintech startups and banks in Vietnam in general, Finsify- TPBank in particular.
Subjects and Scope of the study + Subjects of the study: Practical cooperation between Finsify and TPBank. + Scope of the study: Opportunities and challenges for Fintech startups in cooperation with banks. Definition of key terms a) Definition of banks and commercial banks In general, banks are organizations that play a critical role in the economy and in each local community particularly. Until now, the exact definition of “ bank” still is a controversial topic of scholars.
In terms of services banks provide, it can be seen that a bank is a financial institution which operates the payments system, provide credit for large swathes of the economy, and (usually) act as a safe haven for depositors' funds(Berger, A. According to the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions in Vietnam(No. 47/2010/QH12), Section 2 Article 4, the term “ bank” is construed as: “a type of credit institution which may conduct all banking operations under this Law. Based on their characteristics and operation objectives, banks include commercial banks, policy banks and cooperative banks.” There are many different definitions of banking depending on the laws of each country and each territory.
Based on the purpose and nature of a bank, government agencies give the most general and accurate concept of commercial bank. Just below the definition of bank, in Section 2 Article 3, the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions in Vietnam(No. 47/2010/QH12) stated that “ commercial bank means a type of bank which may conduct all banking operations and other business activities under this Law for profit.” 3 b) Definition of Fintech Firstly, Fintech, the abbreviation of “ financial technology”, is definitely a well-known term for people who have kept a close watch on the financial industry in recent years. There are many definitions related to this term, but generally the concept of Fintech is acknowledged as the relationship between financial services and information technology.